The best thing to me in attending discussions about pedagogy is realizing new ways to approach issues in my own library. Beyond just my notes below, I also scribbled a few things for myself to try out in the classroom after the event (which means I think this event was a success!).

Elmborg started off talking about how he was using reification and nouning. He defined "Information" (that which informs, but also a useful fiction. The problem with information is arriving at a consensus of what it means), "Literacy" (to know one's letters--but also to be of a certain social class that knows its letters, and the things that come with this--voting, bible-reading, etc.), and "Critical" (which involves seeing library instruction as a problematic practice, and being willing to criticize current practices). He also talked about how librarians are too nice; he feels they don't criticize one another (academically) like other fields do.

Elmborg had a lot of words on slides, but didn't exactly read off what was projected (my biggest slide presentation gripe), but commented upon the topics on the slides. I believe that his slide will be shared online at some point (there's a recording of the talk at the LACUNY Instruction Committee page), and I'll link to them. Here are the rest of my notes, which are a combination of what he said or displayed:

• The "god trick:" we portray ourselves as uninvolved with the systems that we work within, un-complicit, "that's the way it is" but also that it must be accepted as so.
• Does "information" exist without a "knower?"
• Data + meaning = information? (implied knower)
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy--good source for definitions (if you like complicated definitions)
• Data is relata: it exists within classification systems, related to other information
• Why would someone resist becoming (information) literate?
• "The middle class is rising"--token response to any question
• Can you teach info lit skills in a vacuum?
• People who are brought up with literacy-rich environments excel easily in school, "literacy skills are a birthrite" (we all know there are exceptions, but still valid to think about)
• Autonomous literacy: teaching skills without ideological baggage
• Literacy=supposedly the key to success in US, so why would anyone resist literacy? (what we need to aware of the classroom as we teach)
• Being critical about the standards (ACRL)
• What do you do as a researcher vs. what do you tell students to do as researchers? Looking for the minimal amount that is enough
• Why is efficiency important? Sometimes inefficiency is where all the best stuff happens with research
• Good information vs. bad information? All biased. All info is good for something and bad for other things
• ACRL standards: Legal from illegal? Ethical? Is copyright ethical?
• We have the ability to transform the world around us.
• Students come to schools for transformation
• Problematizing Freire: are American students "oppressed?" Not to be slavish to Freire, but to use his work to think about what we're doing
• Oppression is the problem of the Brazilian peasant. What's YOUR student's problem?
• American issues: capitalism and border crossing
• Cultural conceptions: even about how we are supposed to take up space (Elmborg was uncomfortable in crowded Manhattan bar, for example)
• Human migration: implies decline in the authority of the state
• Contact zones, shared spaces, borders
• Use of the word "zone" in educational literature: we all have a zone? Intellectual space: productive vs. threatening and prohibitive?
• Students as border crossers, common borderlands in college (from home/family to school, immaturity to maturity, etc.), and belonging
• Students as consumers of education: their reluctance to get involved comes out of our capitalistic culture in which students are taught to be customers/consumers
• Education is something you pay for
• School is necessary for the good life, but irrelevant
• School as a place where you learn to be a good employee (21st Century Skills)
• Is critical information literacy a program? A reified, one-size-fits-all package? Or an invisible critical college within librarianship? A personal philosophy? Does it mean rejecting standards?
• Binding theory to action: hard to do in libraries
• Critical library instruction program might be able to exist within a school devoted to critical pedagogy, but otherwise probably not viable to have an entire library program
• As an educator, it is not your job to satisfy the student (not customer service capitalism)
• Our standards need to be problematized, but once we do so, we can live with them.
• Critical practice percolates to the surface when it's appropriate
• Being real, knocking students awake
• Critical information literacy librarians need to be willing to make trouble
• Important to have a sense of humor
• Don't insist that students be critical if it's inappropriate
• Don't be a theory purist--think NOW
• When theory and practice don't work together, which do you break? An important question for us to ponder
• How do we become a teacher?